Category: Politics

As many of you may know, I was a long time member of Fine Gael. Joining the party when I was an 18 year old student in UCC. I remained a member for many years, and was elected to positions Nationally withing Young Fine Gael and at constituency level in Fine Gael, up until Leo Varadkar was elected leader. Following Leo’s election I did not renew my membership for a number of reasons, but Leo’s politics and policies, as well as the direction Fine Gael was heading (to the right) gave me cause to be concerned so I stepped back.

As a member of the liberal wing of the wing of the party, this didn’t surprise many.

Now those who know me, know I am political and I will always have an interest in politics and I will always be involved in campaigns and referendums locally and nationally and during the recent local elections I was honoured to be asked to be a Director of Elections for a friend in a neighbouring Local Electoral Area.

But when it came for me to vote in my own area I felt I couldn’t vote Fine Gael #1. I felt we as a City, Country and across the world we face a much bigger issue.

Climate Breakdown.

If you prefer to call it Climate Change, that’s fine. But this is something we can no longer ignore in my view. We need to step up and do more. And for me to play my part I have joined the party I voted for in the local elections.

An Comhartas Glas – The Green Party

In my opinion we need politicians who are not afraid to take the hard the decisions. To put the climate and the environment first, because we don’t get a second try at this.

People are switching on to this. School children are protesting on this and that should wake us up. Extinction Rebellion and others are doing their part. It’s comes up more and more in discussions at work, at home and at church (where there is an Eco-Congregation Group).

We need to do more on public transport, on cycling, on renewable energy, sustainable development and so much more. I hope that I can play a small part in this and I look forward to working with friends in the Green Party to try and change things.

Huge thanks to Rob Burton O’Sullivan for putting this together @journalistrob on twitterThis is the third of three posts listing the candidates for the both Councils for May’s local elections, this time focusing on the candidates in the county councils.Due to changes in the electoral boundaries, a number of candidates who had previously sat on the county council will now be running in one of the newly expanded city LEAs. There are now two additional municipal areas, making for a total of ten.2 sitting councillors will be stepping down at this election; 1 in Kanturk, and 1 in Bantry.

Timmy Collins – Independent – Kanturk

Mary Hegarty – Fine Gael – Bantry

A number of incumbent county councillors are now candidates in the city council elections; 6 in the Ballincollig-Carrigaline (the area now just representing Carrigaline, as Ballincollig was absorbed by Cork City South West), and 2 in Cobh-Glanmire (the area now just representing Cobh, as Glanmire was absorbed by Cork City North East).

In yesterday’s (Sunday 21st April) Sunday Business Post we were blessed with not one, not two, but three polls! One on if there was a General Election, one for the Europeans and one for the Locals.

Red C interviewed a sample of 1000 adults between April 11th and 17th. There is a margin of error of +/- 3%.

Around 20% of voters are undecided with five weeks to go to Election day on May 24th

Lets take a look at the General Election figures 1st (change is in relation to last poll at end of March)

Fine Gael 33% (+2 in three weeks)

Fianna Fáil 23% (-2)

Sinn Féin 14% (+1)

Independents 16% (+1)

Labour 5%

Greens 3%

SocDems 2% (-1)

Ind Alliance 2% (-1)

Sol-PBP 1 %(-1)

Aontú 1% (+1)

Others <1%

A good poll for Fine Gael who have a 10 point lead on Fianna Fail. Labour, the Green Party, SocDems and the smaller parties are failing to get into double digits, with only Sinn Fein and Independents making a challenge with 14% and 16% respectively.

Next we look at the European Parliament voting intentions.

Fine Gael 33%

Fianna Fáil 21%

Sinn Féin 16%

Independents 18%

Labour 4%

Greens 4%

SocDems 1%

Ind Alliance 2%

Sol-PBP 1< %

Aontú <1%

Others <1%

This poll should see Fine Gael retain its four seats in the European Parliament, while Fianna Fail should see them win three seats (one in each constituency). Sinn Fein’s result should see them hold at least 2 out of their 3 seats, but with a good chance of returning all 3. The other seats will go to a mix of the smaller parties and independents. Of course this will all depend on whether we have 11 seats or 13 seats and what way the 20% undecided voters split between now and election day.

And finally the local elections

Fine Gael 27%

Fianna Fáil 20%

Sinn Féin 15%

Independents 21%

Labour 5%

Greens 5%

SocDems 1%

Ind Alliance 4%

Sol-PBP <1 %

Aontú <1%

Others 3%

This poll would see Fine Gael increase its support by 3% on the 2014 Local Election which Fianna Fail would slip back by 5.5% on the 2014 results. But with a large number of voters undecided and the personal vote of a number high-profile of a number of local election candidate it is hard to predict the number of seats for each party.

This is the first of two posts listing the candidates for the Cork City Council for May’s local elections.

With the new boundary extension, the number of Local Electoral Area’s on the Northside have been reduced from three to two, Cork North East and Cork North West. Both LEA’s have 6 seats. These areas include areas brought into the city including Glanmire and Blarney.

Two councillors from the Northside of the City will be stepping down at this election, one from each LEA